Topic: Games you've recently beat

@AgentCooper Yeah, I just look at it from a ‘dollars and cents’ (pounds and pence…?) point of view. When I saw it would cost me $20 for the upgrade from PS+ Essential to Extra for 5 months, which is the same cost of one game I would buy, then I could see it doesn’t take much to pay for itself. So I don’t feel pressure to play 50 games on the service to get my money’s worth, I know as long as I find and play 2-3 solid games I enjoy then I break even and can justify the sub. Of course, you don’t own the games and can’t replay them forever (or sell them), but I honestly very rarely replay games.

As for the Souls games, I’m not sure if I’ll play all of them, but I think after Dark Souls Remastered I’ll play Dark Souls 3 and then Elden Ring. I’m not sure about Dark Souls 2 and Sekiro, but we’ll see. Speaking of replay, I do want to replay Bloodborne one day. It’s fantastic and still the best of the 3 From titles I’ve played so far. If they release a PS5 remaster then I’ll be tempted. But for now, I’ve got plenty of From games to keep me busy for a couple years. And with the rest of the industry gradually catching up with FromSoft by copying their formula, there look to be a lot of Souls-likes coming out that seem pretty decent. In fact, I’m jealous that I think GamePass will get WuKong and Lies of P on day 1 if I’m not mistaken, which both look great and seem Souls-y. I’ll also probably be the day 1 for Jedi Survivor which should be a Souls-like too.

Sort of completed Dragon Quest XI! There seems to be a hell of a lot of postgame content to the point that I’ve not really completed it if I’m being honest but it does very much feel like the end of the main story. There probably aren’t enough superlatives to describe how good the game is but it’s easily one of the best JRPGs of all time. I’d be tempted to say it’s the best JRPG on PS4, beating out Persona 5.

@nessisonett Yeah as Rog says, I'm usually way past having my fill of the game by the time I've finished the story. Mostly cos I take so long and I've seen everything that I need to. God of War 2018 is about the only exception as I wanted to keep playing even after I had got the platinum.

@RogerRoger @JohnnyShoulder Never mind, the game just pulled yet another twist and now I feel like I’ve got another third of the game to go. It’s not my fault, it said The End!

Completed Castlevania Requiem: Rondo of Blood & Symphony of the Night on PS4.

Well, sort of. I've done 100% of the stuff there is to do in Rondo and obtained all of the associated trophies, including replaying with a different unlockable character. SOTN is a little more elaborate in terms of its trophy requirements. I've unlocked the ENTIRE MAP (200.6%) and obtained all three endings. By any rational metric, I'd be well and fully done with the game. But there are still a lot of random little requirements for various trophies to clean up, including one that'll require grinding an insane amount of money. Ugh.

There's also a trophy that essentially requires beating the game a second time as a different unlockable character.

And I might not stop there, since the PS4 version adds in a third unlockable character from the Saturn port of the game that was my favorite from Rondo of Blood, so I feel compelled to play it with her as well.

What I'm saying is that I've virtually fully completed the game, yet I'm nowhere near done with it thanks to trophies and unlockable characters. So that'll be my go-to PS4 game for quite a while still.

@nessisonett The post-game in DQXI is essentially the final third of the story.

Unfortunately, I tend to think it actively makes the story worse. In terms of gameplay and completion, it's worth tackling, for sure, but I do kind of wish it didn't exist from a narrative perspective.

@Ralizah I can already understand why it could be divisive. From the looks of things, the party that I ended the game with ceased to exist. I get that you’ll save the countless people who died after Yggdrasil fell, not least Veronica, but it slightly undermines the entire crux of several characters’ growth. I’m intrigued to see how they tackle Hendrik but it’s still a bit odd that so many events have been undone.

@nessisonett Yep. Nothing sucks more than putting your party through the wringer to stimulate character growth, then using time travel or other magic bull$hit to go "lol nope!" so you don't have to commit to the new normal that was established. Not only does it do the story dirty, it also reduces trust with the audience. It's why I almost never care about the stakes of a conflict in a mainstream blockbuster film, because even if they "kill" a character, 90% of the time they're going to sputter back to life before the credits roll. So many storytellers today are terrified of angering the audience by committing to devastating story twists. But without those twists, those stakes, the stories wouldn't be nearly as interesting, so people keep using them.

Also, even going back to the post-game a year or two later, it still unnecessarily bothered me losing so much progress with my current team. Maybe not a rational feeling, when you consider the full direction of the post-game's storytelling, but it still bothered me.

I think my favorite JRPG on PS4 is still P5R. The third semester expansion did an amazing job giving the game the final act it really deserved, and boosted my opinion of the story and characters overall. So, kind of the opposite effect of DQXI in that regard, lol.

I'd probably also put Ys VIII over DQXI, tbh. Except on Switch, because DQXI is a technical marvel on that platform, whereas Ys VIII really struggles in certain areas, to the point where I sold my cartridge once I was done with the game.

Actually, I'd probably put Valkyria Chronicles 4 over DQXI as well.

This entire post sounds particularly anti-DQXI, but I really do like the game a lot. I just think this has been a particularly good decade JRPG-wise. Even for the PS4.

Just finished my Hero playthrough of inFAMOUS’ main story, gotta mop up the 100% territory etc but got all the shards and all the stunts which were the main concerns. Try and mop up the territory this evening now and then onto the Villain playthrough tomorrow.

River City Girls. A week-long trial of it was free via NSO, so I played through it with my nephew. Definitely enjoyed my time with it.

I couldn't get through Rondo even with Maria and her animal friends when I tried it @Ralizah.

The "classic" gameplay of the Castlevania games does not do anything for me in the slightest. Ugh it's so archaic.

Though I basically bought the collection just to finally give Symphony of the Night a whirl.

Which despite being more up my alley... I couldn't get into Symphony when I tried that either. Hopefully that was just because I just wasn't in the mood at the time.

Looked nice though!

@HallowMoonshadow Yeah, classic Castlevania is pretty much the definition of "old school." With that said, Rondo of Blood is probably the prettiest and most accessible entry point to that style of Castlevania game design. There are challenges to be had, but I've always appreciated how much they dialed down the challenge from the NES games. But it can still kick your butt if you play poorly. It's my ideal 'pick up and play' 16 bit game.

Most people bought the collection for SOTN, I'm sure. It's... fine. It's good. I also like most of the Igavanias. I just happen to think introducing RPG aspects to the series was a mistake, and miss unique stages that were designed differently versus just being in one location the entire time. And, you know, you spend A LOT of time backtracking, because it's basically just Metroid now.

Well Villain playthrough on hard done, just need to rack up enough xp to max out all the Evil powers now and the platinum is done. This and it’s sequel are so good that even though they had a decent critical and audience reaction, I’d personally consider them criminally underrated.

@colonelkilgore I forget, have you played Infamous Second Son yet?

Weirdly, when playing the Forspoken demo this weekend I was getting mild Infamous vibes.

@Th3solution I haven’t yet mate, looking forward to it and First Light though. I’ll give it a bit of a breather once I’ve finished off the platinum and make a start on Second Son some time in 2023. How about yourself sol, you played any of them?

Also, I did hear that Forspoken feels a wee bit like inFamous, bodes well for me liking it I reckon.

Yes, I’ve played all three mainline games as well as First Light. The only Infamous property I missed was that Festival of Blood standalone DLC.

I’m usually prone to go along with improved technology equates to improved end product, so take this for what it’s worth, but I liked Second Son at least as much as the first two and I’d say First Light may have been my favorite of the bunch. Nevertheless, prevailing opinion is that the original PS3 Cole games are better than the latter PS4 outings. I do think Cole’s story and character is better, but the gameplay and visual effects have a nice upgrade with the newer games.

I want to go back to spend more time with the Forspoken demo, but it seemed alright. The gameplay was pretty flashy with a lot of superpowers and parkour up and down like Infamous. It was a bit overwhelming to see all the upgrade options though from cloaks to nails as well as all the complex skill trees. That’s the issue with demos, some of the progression system is confusing if you’re dropped into the middle of it.

@Th3solution yeah I had always heard that the two PS3 inFamous games were better… but having looked into it a bit since starting the original again, it seems like inFamous: Second Son may be one of those games that time is quite kind to. There are quite a few video essays and such singing it’s praises, which is great as far as I’m concerned as it just means I have more quality to look forward to. I’m obviously massively in the minority… but while I thoroughly enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima, it’s behind inFamous in terms of my fave Sucker Punch ip for sure.

And although I never play demos, I can imagine how daunting it must be to try and get your head around a modern action-rpg’s mechanics and skill-upgrades and such without the proper introduction to each facet.

@colonelkilgore I’ve had demos turn me off to a game as often as turn me on to one. Demos are fewer and further between lately and it’s probably because of this very issue of a slice of gameplay can often make the game seem worse than just giving people a time trial for a couple hours instead.

And I’d have to go with Ghost of Tsushima if I had to pick, but again, recency bias and fancy new gen tech is part of the draw. What’s amazing is how differently the two franchises play. I’ve never played a Sly Cooper game. Apparently you can feel the Sly Cooper DNA in the Infamous games.

@KAIRU Funnily enough I have been craving old school NFS & have just completed the career mode in NFS Hot Pursuit. So that’s definitely encouraging to hear!
Is there any rubber-banding in the game?

It’s pretty persistent in NFS Hot Pursuit. The last race was literally 50miles long...keep up for 2 miles...10miles in, the top of the pack is long gone...30miles in there’s no one & then you spent the last 1/4 just driving knowing that you will catch everyone up eventually. It’s pretty insane- still a solid game though.
Miss the NFS games where you could actually lap people.

@KAIRU Sounds great! Definitely looking to pick it up on a sale down the road. I’m glad that tuning is back as minuscule as it may be (doubt we’ll ever get back to Underground 2 levels). Thanks!

@KAIRU I always struggle when it come to drifting in the racing games I've played. I'm ok upto to certain degree, but there comes a point when it i find it too difficult